Development of Manipulator with Collision Force Suppression Mechanism

This paper presents a collision force suppression mechanism that is installed in the shoulder and elbow joints of a 5-DOF manipulator. The collision suppression mechanism consists of an air cushion bag, a transmission rack, a clutch gear and two compression springs. If the manipulator collides with an object or a human when the end-effector of the manipulator follows a target trajectory, the manipulator moves in the direction of the collision force to reduce the collision force. However, if the colliding object is eliminated, the end-effector follows a target trajectory once again. Through collision experiments, the effectiveness of the collision force suppression mechanism is verified.